Agata Poniatowski is a 21-year-old whose parents emigrated from Poland to escape communism before she and her brother were born. Though her brother was sent to Polish school when he was a child, she felt as if her parents “gave up” on teaching her the language.
Now, Poniatowski is taking small steps to learn the language. She asks her parents to text her in Polish and tries her best to respond to them in Polish. In her free time, she watches children’s shows with subtitles on, including a remastered version of Baba Jaga.
Poniatowski thinks that this could have been avoided if her parents sent her to one of the Polish schools located in New York City.
“I was really—I guess you could say a rowdy kid. I would always be crying and be upset. I didn’t like that ballet class was 40 minutes long.” Poniatowski said. “My parents probably were like ‘maybe not’ for me, but my brother had more patience, so they sent him and he learned how to read and write in Polish. Although he quit pretty shortly … but he did have the opportunity to read and write, whereas I’m trying to do that at 20 years old and it’s really difficult.”
Poniatowski recalled a moment when her cousin decided to test her writing skills by asking her to write down the word “lozko,” which means “bed.”
“I gave her a piece of paper with my idea of how to spell it and she just started laughing hysterically. I didn’t want for that to happen. I didn’t want to lose my communication with my family when I’m not in Poland, so I want to be able to text them, to talk to them,” Poniatowski said.
Polish schools are organizations that are often organized by Polish churches. Students who attend them usually take classes in four subjects—geography, history, literature and religion—for four hours every Saturday. In high school, the religion class gets switched to an ethics class.
TKTK Interview with Krystian Surdel, who goes in-depth on how the classes look like. The interview is scheduled for March 8.
For people like Poniatowski, Polish schools also help build one’s sense of cultural identity and connect to one’s country of origin.
“I’m Polish because of the culture that I have at my house, but I think that I would feel more connected to being Polish if I also had the ability to communicate with that side of my family, or read the newspaper or something like that. Actually know what’s going on in Poland. Not from The New York Times, but from a Polish magazine or Polish news. … Understanding politics or big words, that would be cool,” Poniatowski said.
Paulina Ekstowicz emigrated from Poland after she finished fourth grade. In an interview, she explained that her dad was the first to move to the United States and her mother decided to rejoin her father in order to earn more money and ensure that Eksowicz gets a good university education.
When they moved, Eksowicz was 11 years old. Her parents never sent her to Polish school, but she was able to remember the language by speaking Polish at home and watching Polish TV with her parents. In her free time, she also reads Polish books and listens to Polish music.
“I think they [Polish schools] are [helpful] to a certain extent, because you do get to make more polish friends and learn more about your own history and traditions,” Eksowicz said. “But I also think it’s very stressful, because it is like Saturday school majority of the time and it’s just another level of stress.”
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“If I had went to Polish school, I think that … maybe I would know what exactly is Polish culture rather than things I’m assuming are Polish culture,” Poniatowski said.